A six-year-old boy who developed severely bowed legs, when his twin brother did not, has been able to go to school after a surgical charity repaired them.
Serigne’s legs started to bow when he was a toddler, while his twin Fallou’s remained straight.
When he was two years old, his parents noticed he took longer to walk, and when he did, he struggled.
In the spring of 2023, seven mentee surgeons boarded the Global Mercy™ while the hospital ship was docked in the west African nation of Senegal. Dr. Alida Ngandjio Sidi, a pediatric surgeon originally from Cameroon, came on board with confidence. She knew this was where she needed to be.
More volunteers than ever are needed to devote their time to international charity Mercy Ships as it prepares to start 2024 with two hospital ships in service as the momentum to deliver improved surgical care across Africa intensifies.
The charity’s newest hospital ship, the Global Mercy®, continues to provide surgeries in Sierra Leone, where it has been since August 2023, while the Africa Mercy™ will start service in Madagascar.
Mercy Ships provided 3,295 surgeries for patients like Malang in 2023. Of those surgeries, 1,437 took place on board the Global Mercy™ during field services in two ports – Freetown and Dakar. The ship served patients from three countries – Senegal, The Gambia, and Sierra Leone. This work was only possible thanks to more than 1,318 skilled volunteers from over 67 countries, including 660+ Senegalese, Gambian, and Sierra Leonean national crewmembers.
Ngordy Sow was working as a national interpreter with Mercy Ships in his home country of Senegal when he received his next assignment. He was asked to care for a new patient, a young boy named Mamadou, who was on board the Africa Mercy® to receive surgery for a painful hernia.
When Ngordy arrived in the ward to start his shift, he was in for a surprise.
Gratitude for Mercy Ships’ work was publicly shared at the joint Third Congress of the Senegalese Society of Pediatric Surgery and the Ninth Congress of the African Society of Pediatric Surgery in Dakar last week.
Secretary General of the Ministry of Health and Social Action Professor Habib Ndiaye acknowledged the lack of pediatric surgeons in the country and thanked Mercy Ships for helping to tackle the very high demand for child orthopedic surgeries.
While the Africa Mercy® and Global Mercy™ were docked in Senegal, volunteer physical therapists from all around the world came on board for months at a time to offer their skills and expertise.
More than 350 patients came across many different volunteers on the physical rehabilitation team – but there was one familiar face that almost every patient met: Mame Birame Sy.
Have you ever met someone whose eyes dance when they talk? That’s the very first thing everyone notices when they encounter 3-year-old Umu. Her aunt, Fatmata, has always been amazed by Umu’s effortless ability to make friends, regardless of where she goes. “She’s a very brave girl,” Fatmata shared. “She’s intelligent. She’s a fast learner.”
But although this contagious joy is Umu’s trademark now, it wasn’t always this way. Her birth came with an unexpected twist as she entered the world with a benign tumor growing from the side of her face and neck. This was a shock to her mother, Yei, who’d had no reason to expect anything other than a healthy baby girl. Seeing her firstborn with the growth was utterly devastating.
A mother who lived in fear her daughter’s fast-growing tumor would suffocate her is rejoicing after a surgical charity gave her daughter life-saving surgery.
Without a single maxillofacial surgeon in her home country of Sierra Leone, Yei had no one who could treat her daughter.
While she was pregnant, Yei had no ultrasound, and no reason to think her baby would be born anything but healthy. When she first saw the lump on her baby’s face and neck at birth, she felt devastated.
In the realm of medicine, there are pivotal moments that can forever change lives. For me, that transformative moment occurred two decades ago when my path intersected with medical mission teams in our country, including Mercy Ships, an organisation committed to delivering life-changing surgeries to those who need it most. Witnessing their surgical interventions and the profound impact on people’s lives ignited my passion to become a surgeon.
I realised that the human body’s needs transcend borders and the Gambian people deserved access to quality surgical care.